Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Countdown: Jeff Bezos Launches Space Flight In 24 Hours; Delta Variant Overwhelms Missouri Hospitals As Cases Surge; Britney Spears Takes Aim At Dad And Sister In Venting Spree. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 19, 2021 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[07:30:00]

HAKEEM OLUSEYI, ASTROPHYSICIST: So, in America's military and aerospace industries, it's 50 miles.

Now, here's the thing. I think it's based on having a round number --

(Laughter)

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

OLUSEYI: -- because there is no actual beginning of space.

AVLON: Yes.

OLUSEYI: The atmosphere kind of peters out gradually. So if you think in kilometers, they define the Karman line at 100 kilometers. Here in America, we use 50 miles. And so, the Karman line is about --

AVLON: Karman line.

OLUSEYI: -- about 62 miles. And so, Bezos is going to 66.

But it's basically just the parabola. You just go up and do that, right, and you come back down. So that's a big area of research -- suborbital research.

So we've been flying rockets -- every year, we fly a bunch of rockets that do this, as researchers. And what's different about this one is that humans are going to be on board.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And so, to that point -- look, it's -- you say we do it a lot --

OLUSEYI: Yes.

KEILAR: -- but humans aren't on board. This is incredibly exciting, right? It's so exciting to see -- talk about Wally Funk -- to look at the folks who are going up. But we also can't forget that it's not with risks even if they have an escape pod.

OLUSEYI: Absolutely, and risk equals ratings, right? So we have people like combat sports, people like NASCAR, but here we actually use scientific and engineering rigor to figure out how risky things are.

So if you take, for example, the shuttle launches. The risk there was estimated by systems engineers to be about one in 120 launches. For Blue Origin and these suborbital flights, we're talking about one in 1,000 launches. So they've already done 15.

And, of course, we don't know if it's one out of 1,000 -- it could happen on number 16 or it could happen on number 900. You just don't know. But the estimates tend to be really good.

KEILAR: Really.

AVLON: And look -- I mean, part of the excitement, though, is really just the exploration game -- that America is back in space after, really, a long hiatus. And the fact that it's happening with sort of public-private partnerships and private companies is extraordinary.

Is this -- you know, how do you see the various companies in this place? I mean, there's Blue Origin, there's SpaceX. Who do you think is in sort of pole position to really make the biggest difference --

OLUSEYI: Yes.

AVLON: -- when it comes to mainstreaming this?

OLUSEYI: You know what, it's going to shake itself out. But what we have to look at is that this is not the origin of launch services, right? We have companies like Lockheed and Boeing, and there's a lot of companies around the world that offer orbital launch services as well as suborbital launch services.

So if we look at the different models here -- so, you're right, America back in space. People were paying $20 million to go up but they were taking Russian vehicles.

And so now, we have these two models. One is a standard rocket -- the Blue Origin model -- and the other is a spaceplane -- the model of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company. Which one is going to win? One or none, or both?

KEILAR: The market will tell us.

OLUSEYI: The market will tell us.

KEILAR: Very expensive, still, to fly.

Hakeem, it is great to have you here. Thank you so much.

OLUSEYI: Thank you so much.

AVLON: So great. Fascinating stuff and more to come for sure.

OLUSEYI: Thank you.

AVLON: All right.

Up next, hospitals are being overwhelmed in hard-hit Missouri as COVID cases surge among the unvaccinated.

KEILAR: And, Britney Spears takes aim at her family and her legal drama -- amid her legal drama. Not even her famous sister spared here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITNEY SPEARS, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Stronger."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:37:35]

KEILAR: Federal officials are sounding the alarm as the COVID-19 Delta variant surges throughout the country.

In Missouri, "The Atlantic's" Ed Yong reports that hospitals are, once again, overwhelmed and almost all of those patients are unvaccinated. Yong writes, "For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last."

Ed Yong, staff writer for "The Atlantic," is joining us now. He recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. Ed, thank you so much for being with us on this.

I think the takeaway from your piece is that it isn't over and for many communities, it's almost like this really is going to be the pandemic for them ahead.

ED YONG, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC, WON PULITZER PRIZE FOR COVID-19 REPORTING (via Skype): I agree. As one hospital chief in southwest Missouri told me, New York recently threw a ticker-tape parade for its healthcare heroes but ours are drowning in COVID. And this is the reality for many people in large pockets of the country that remain extremely vulnerable to Delta because so many people are unvaccinated.

You know, once again, healthcare workers are overwhelmed, they're exhausted. It's harder this time because vaccines are readily available, because they can't believe that they have to be doing all of this again. And I don't think we can underestimate the toll it is taking on their mental health and their ability to care for the people who they have to care for.

AVLON: And what are you hearing from those healthcare workers because their frustration is understandable? But you've been speaking with them. What's the message they're sending?

YONG: You know, as I said, they are exhausted almost beyond the telling of it. Last winter, they got through the worst surge we had seen so far and they thought that the worst of the pandemic was behind them. They'd spent the last -- the intervening months doing catch-up work on all the surgeries and procedures that were deferred. So they are really bone-tired.

And then this surge hits out of nowhere and I think it's really crushing their morale. And they see much of America moving past the pandemic and pretending that it's over and they know that it is not. They see people who have not decided to get these incredibly effective vaccines that could have prevented many of the deaths that they are facing, and that is very, very difficult to take.

A lot of people who have very strong beliefs and disbeliefs about the vaccines end up changing their minds only at the last minute when they're already very sick and when it's too late.

[07:40:05]

KEILAR: Yes, I want to read part of that -- what you say. This really stood out to me in your piece when you were speaking with one healthcare worker. A patient -- an elderly man -- came in and had just been admitted and was very sick. He said I'm embarrassed that I'm here. He wanted to talk about the vaccine. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking you have a very high likelihood of not leaving the hospital.

It's almost like that's a patient who knew that they were thrown a lifesaver and they didn't take it to avoid this situation they're in. It's heartbreaking.

YONG: It's really heartbreaking. And even now, I still feel a lot of sympathy and empathy for people like this. I think that we are all drowning in such a sea of misinformation and disinformation and it's hard to break through when your entire community believes a certain thing about the pandemic or the vaccines.

And it's only when communities like this are hit so hard and when you start seeing your loved ones and your family members dying around you that people start realizing what's actually happening and how serious this disease is, and sometimes it's too late.

You know, people I spoke to in southwest Missouri have been working really hard to build trust among communities who have a lot of distrust with the medical establishment, with government, and trying to get them to take the vaccine for the sake of themselves, their families. But trust is very, very slow to build and Delta acts incredibly fast.

AVLON: It does, and that's -- I mean, it is too late for many folks.

We have a new CBS poll that just came out showing that 74 percent of the unvaccinated say that they wouldn't even take the vaccine if they were recommended by their direct doctor, which gets to questions of trust. That kind of relationship doesn't seem to be permeating.

So what are the messages that you've seen working in Missouri because that's the key question when you confront it as a country? What can work to convince these folks?

YONG: Yes, absolutely. Some folks at the Department of Public Health in southwest Missouri who I've spoken to have a lot of success with community-focused outreach. So they've looked to trusted sources to convince the people around them, and that might be anyone from firefighters to pastors to your neighbors -- you know, people going around door-to-door. It's becoming a one-on-one war of attrition against the misinformation that's out there. Getting people to convince their own loved ones and their own community members.

There are signs that this is working. There was a vaccine clinic set up at a local church that vaccinated record numbers of people -- much more than local public health folks were expecting.

But as I said, it's slow work and there's lots of forces acting against that buildup of trust. And there's so much at stake and things are moving very quickly out there.

AVLON: A one-on-one war of attrition against misinformation.

Ed Yong, thank you very much for joining us, and thank you for all your work.

YONG: Thank you.

AVLON: The nation's other crisis is gun violence on American streets. Children are losing their lives after dozens of shootings in U.S. cities.

KEILAR: And we are following some breaking news out of Tokyo. An American gymnast testing positive for COVID just days before the Olympics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:47:40]

KEILAR: At least 53 people have been shot in 41 separate shootings in Chicago since Friday. It's just one of the many cities that is reeling from another weekend of senseless gun violence in America.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is live for us in Chicago with more. It seems like the same story over and over again, Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really does, Brianna. And this started in 2020 not just here in Chicago but across the country.

FBI data showed that murders were up 25 percent in 2019 going into 2020. And sadly, that trend has continued into this year. Across 70 major U.S. cities, one analysis shows that homicides have gone up, and about two-thirds of them driven by gun violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (voice-over): In Washington, D.C., frustration and calls for justice --

PROTESTERS: Say her name! Nyiah.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): -- after 6-year-old Nyiah Courtney was killed in a drive-by shooting Friday night in another weekend ravaged by gun violence in the United States. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it keeps happening and it keeps happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's take our streets back from these cowards that's killing our children.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Courtney's grandmother remembering the incoming first-grader as an amazing little girl.

ANDREA COURTNEY, NYIAH COURTNEY'S GRANDMOTHER: I pray that another child don't suffer in the way my granddaughter had to suffer with careless acts of violence. I want justice for my granddaughter.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The Metropolitan Police Department releasing the video showing a vehicle of interest, and a $60,000 reward is being offered for any information about the incident that also left five adults injured.

CHIEF ROBERT CONTEE, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: So I am asking that we all stand together and say no more. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. The cowards who committed this crime came into this community without any regard for human life, without regard for Nyiah's life.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): This happened less than three miles away from Nationals Park where three people were injured in a separate shooting outside the baseball stadium Saturday night.

CHRIS GELDART, D.C. DEPUTY MAYOR FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND JUSTICE: We believe this was an isolated incident. Again, had nothing to do with the game itself.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The gunshots sending players and fans scrambling for cover -- some even taking shelter inside of the dugouts.

[07:50:03]

We thought it was fireworks at first. People -- a couple of people started running and then, as you saw, more and more people running. And then we heard more shots. That's when we realized it was real.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): In Philadelphia, a 1-year-old boy was one of more than 30 shooting victims over the weekend. This, after the city passed 300 homicides at the earliest point in more than three decades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a war zone in the neighborhood that shouldn't be there. It's bad -- it's really bad.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Here in Chicago, six people were injured, including a 12-year-old and four teenagers in a shooting late Saturday night when investigators say someone in an SUV opened fire on a group of people standing outside a party.

In downtown Portland, an 18-year-old woman was killed and six people wounded by gunfire early Saturday morning. CHIEF CHUCK LOVELL, PORTLAND POLICE: Investigators think there might

be more victims and witnesses who left the scene, which is understandable under the circumstances as chaotic and terrifying as that scene was.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): And in Tucson, Arizona, at least two people are dead and several others injured after a shooting Sunday afternoon. Among the victims, an EMT worker who was shot in the head.

CHIEF CHRIS MAGNUS, TUCSON, POLICE: This is both a highly tragic, really horrific incident with many unknowns at this time. But it's going to involve a lengthy and complex investigation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Now, in context, the murder rate in 2020 nationwide was high but still 40 percent below what it was in the 80s and 90s when murders peaked in the United States. That's little comfort, though, to cities that are seeing record surges in gun violence and families that continue to lose loved ones.

Here in Chicago, we're slightly under where we were last year when it comes to homicides. But when you look at pre-pandemic levels, we are still up more than 45 percent in murders and up around 60 percent in shootings -- again, compared to those pre-pandemic levels, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. Whatever the level is, it is just headed in the wrong direction and cities are trying to get their arms around this problem.

Omar, thank you so much, live for us from Chicago.

We do have some breaking news this morning. This is an American gymnast who has tested positive for COVID just days before the Summer Games. We do not know the identity of this gymnast. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live for us at the Tokyo Olympics.

AVLON: And Britney Spears battling her family on social media as she battles for her freedom in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPEARS: Singing "Oops! I Did It Again."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:56:44]

KEILAR: Britney Spears is continuing to speak out following her jaw- dropping court testimony. In double social media posts over the weekend, she spoke out about performing, control, family, and hope, writing this.

"There's nothing worse than when the people closest to you who never showed up for you post things in regard to your situation, whatever it may be, and speak righteously for support. There's nothing worse than that. How dare the people you love the most say anything at all. Did they even put a hand out to even lift me up at the time? How dare you make it public that now you care? Did you put your hand out when I was drowning?"

With me now is Tess Barker. She is the co-host of "Toxic: The Britney Spears Story." It's a podcast that takes a serious look at Britney Spears' conservatorship and the legal system that has allowed it to continue for 13 years. Tess, thank you so much for being with us.

I wonder who you are viewing these posts from Britney Spears.

TESS BARKER, CO-HOST, "TOXIC: THE BRITNEY SPEARS STORY" PODCAST (via Skype): I don't find them totally surprising. I think as you said, Britney's testimony was completely jaw-dropping. I think what she was describing was clear-cut abuse and really nothing short of a human rights violation. So I'm not surprised that she's bringing out people close to her for being silent about this situation for so long.

KEILAR: We're hearing a lot that we haven't heard before from her. And a lot of focus, of course, has been on her father in recent weeks. I want to talk about that.

She is basically threatening to not work as long as her father is in charge of the conservatorship. She's been on a work hiatus now for some time. She canceled a residency in Las Vegas in 2019.

How do you view that threat?

BARKER: Well, I actually think it was a really smart decision on Britney's part and I think it makes a lot of sense. And she's had so much of her agency (ph) taken away from her, legally and in the way her own father's been controlling here. But this was one action she could take to sort of cut off what I think she and many of us saw as what was driving a lot of this control and a lot of this abuse, which is the money.

KEILAR: Yes, there's no doubt there's a conflict of interest here, right? People in control of her benefiting from the money that she makes.

As there has been focus on her dad, there was also a post that took aim at her sister. She said, "I don't like that my sister showed up at an awards show and performed my songs to remixes. My so-called support system hurt me deeply."

She was referencing -- and we're going to play it -- a performance at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS, ACTRESS AND SINGER: Singing remix of Britney Spears' songs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I mean, we see Britney Spears there looking on. I think in hindsight, the look on her face maybe says something different. But what do you think about the fact that -- I mean, it's kind of all coming out now.

BARKER: Yes, definitely. I mean, Britney did a really brave thing in deciding to speak in open court a couple of weeks ago and it does feel like the cat is out of the bag. And I think that Britney, in the past, has tried to get out of the conservatorship and tried to speak out about the conservatorship and has been thwarted. So I think the truth is just out there and I think there's not much that the people around here can do that.